


Tender Surprises

by empyreanwritings



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bikers, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Mild Language, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, biker!Bucky
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-22
Updated: 2020-07-22
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:14:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25453738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/empyreanwritings/pseuds/empyreanwritings
Summary: On Bucky’s birthday, your son has a very important question to ask him. And it may just be the greatest gift anyone has ever given him.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Reader
Comments: 3
Kudos: 102





	Tender Surprises

Bucky collapsed on the couch next to you. He wrapped his arm around your shoulders and pulled you close to his side. You leaned up, giving him a light peck on the cheek before resting your head on his chest. It had been quite the day for both of you. 

Today was Bucky’s thirty-sixth birthday. You and your son, Tyler, had planned the whole day out for him to celebrate. It started with an early morning breakfast in bed; Tyler claimed he made most of it, but he couldn’t work a toaster to save his life. Once breakfast finished, you packed up the car and headed to the beach. Bucky had told you weeks in advance that he didn’t want to do anything too crazy for his birthday, so you agreed a family beach trip would be perfect. And it was. 

You spent most of the time lounging in a beach chair with a book, while Tyler kept Bucky busy working on “the biggest hole in the universe.” Even if Bucky denied it, you knew he was just as excited to see how deep they could dig together. 

You stayed at the beach until the sun began to set. Tyler whined about not wanting to leave, but he passed out quickly on the drive back home. Bucky held your hand the entire ride home. The best of Journey played softly in the background. It was incredibly peaceful. You, yourself, could have fallen asleep right there, but you didn’t want to make Bucky drive all the way home with no one to talk to. 

But now that you were back home, it was time for presents, and Tyler was already bouncing off the walls again. He was excited to give Bucky the present he picked out. 

“Before you open the box, you have to read this letter first!” Tyler handed him a haphazardly wrapped box with a piece of paper taped on top of it. The letter had been your idea. You thought it would be the perfect lead up to what his present was. “And read it out loud!”

Bucky carefully pulled the tape off of the paper and cleared his throat. “Dear Bucky, when we first met, I was seven years old. Mom and I had moved in across the street, and you were the scary biker guy that our real estate lady warned us about. Mom and I didn’t believe her, by the way.”

_The sun was brutal today. There was not a single cloud in the sky to block it out, and it had been beating down on Bucky all day. His shirt stuck to his back, and he knew he was dripping with sweat, but he had to finish working on the motorcycle for one of his clients. They were paying him extra to get it done before the weekend. And he could never turn down money._

_He groaned and pulled his shirt off, using it to wipe the sweat from his forehead. Even with his hair up in a bun, sweat still managed to drip down into his eyes._

_He really hated Florida sometimes._

_“Are you in a gang?” Bucky’s head snapped up in surprise at hearing a kid’s voice._

_A young boy stood on the other side of the motorcycle. His big brown eyes stared at Bucky curiously. There wasn’t a sense of fear or worry about being so close to a stranger in them. Just idle curiosity._

_“Where are your parents, kid?”_

_The young boy pointed to the house directly across the street from Bucky’s. “My mom is making lunch right now. And my dad, well, he went to the store to buy milk. That was 4 years ago, so I think he might have gotten lost.”_

_Bucky coughed, trying to hide the obvious shock that hit him. For a kid, he was very observant._

_“We prefer to call it a club,” Bucky chuckled. “We’d have to do a lot more illegal stuff to be considered a gang. I think we’re pretty mild.”_

_“Marcy said that my mom shouldn’t move into our house because you and your gang sell drugs on the weekend.”_

_“And what did your mom say about that?”_

_“She laughed and asked what kind of drugs you sell. She made a joke about brownies that Marcy didn’t find amusing at all.”_

_Bucky let out a loud laugh. Marcy had been a pain in his ass the day she started selling homes near his. She spread all sorts of rumors about him and his club to try and get the neighborhood to rally against him. Some days he’d be a pimp running an underground prostitution ring, and others he’d be a drug lord who kept sharks in his pool. It was ridiculous._

_The locals knew The Winter Riders were a tame motorcycle club, though. They met at the VFW on Saturdays, played some pool and occasionally got rowdy if they had one too many drinks. Most of its members were veterans, and they didn’t want to start any trouble if they didn’t have to. Of course, they had been caught dealing a few beatings to well deserved men. Sometimes they’d get a little too handsy with the bar staff and needed a reminder on why they shouldn’t do that. No one ever got arrested though; Bucky knew the right people down at the police department._

_“Tyler, what did I tell you about talking to strangers?” You stood at the end of Bucky’s driveway, your hands on your hips._

_Tyler shrugged. “You said only to talk to strangers if they’re a good person for you to have sex with.”_

_Your eyes grew wide, and you could feel the embarrassment crashing down on you. Bucky bit his lip to keep himself from laughing and looked over at you. He raised his eyebrows in amusement, but you weren’t looking at him. You were trying to look at anything but him._

_“I said that as a joke!” You groaned. “Just…get inside. I have a surprise for you on the table!”_

_“Is it an Xbox?” Tyler gasped._

_You gasped as well, keeping a huge smile on your face, and placed your hands on your knees so you were eye level with him. “No! It’s your overdue homework that you need to turn in tomorrow!”_

_The smile on Tyler’s face dropped, and he grumbled a quick goodbye to Bucky before storming off into the house. Your relationship with your son intrigued Bucky. You didn’t seem upset by the sex candidate comment. Embarrassed, but not upset. Most parents wouldn’t even let their kids know what sex was before the age of eighteen._

_“Sorry about that,” you apologized. “He and I have an open communication policy. I don’t hide anything from him, and he doesn’t hide anything from me. Apparently, that bites me in the ass sometimes.”_

_“It’s okay, really. He seems like a great kid.”_

_Bucky used his shirt to wipe the grease from his hands and stood up. You eyed his shirtless body, trying not to make it obvious that you were loving the sight of his tattoos. He walked over to you and held his hand out, which you gladly shook._

_“I’m James, by the way. Most of my friends call me Bucky.” He flashed you a smile that had your heart stop in your chest._

_Oh boy was he going to be trouble for you._

_“Y/N. I don’t have a nickname as interesting as yours,” you said as you turned to head back to your house. “I should get back inside and make sure he’s actually doing his homework. It was nice to meet you, Bucky.”_

_“It was nice to meet you too.”_

Bucky smiled at the memory of meeting you and Tyler. He never would have expected that encounter to change his life. He couldn’t even believe six years had passed since that day. Time sure did fly by. 

“I knew you were going to be in our lives for a long time when mom came back smiling that day,” Bucky continued. He glanced down at you, but you hid your face against his chest to keep him from seeing the cheesy smile on your face. 

“There are a lot of moments that I appreciate, so I’m just going to list off the ones I enjoyed the most. One: the day you let me ride on the motorcycle with you. Two: the fishing trip with you, Uncle Sam, and Uncle Steve where you ended up tipping your canoe. Three: that one time I found the naughty video of you and mom, and you paid me not to tell anyone.”

You jolted up and glared over at Bucky. You knew about the video - you had been the one to suggest you tape it - but you didn’t know that Tyler stumbled upon it! Bucky’s face turned red, and he kept his focus on the paper in his hands. He really didn’t want to see the death glare you were giving him. 

In his defense, you labelling it as a kid’s show in hopes of disguising it was probably not the best idea. 

“Four: the day you took me out for ice cream and asked for my permission to marry mom. And five: the day you punched my real-but-not-real father in the face.”

_Sam and Steve were sat on Bucky’s couch, laughing about something that happened with Clint at the VFW last night. They hadn’t gotten to the full story yet because they were laughing too hard. Whatever it was, Bucky hoped they got it on video. If it was as funny as they were making it seem, he wanted to see it for himself._

_Their laughter was interrupted by the sound of the doorbell going off repeatedly. Bucky sat up and tried to see who was at the door through the window but couldn’t see anybody. When the doorbells went unanswered, the person on the other side began knocking._

_“Just a sec! I’m coming!” Bucky shouted as he walked over to the door._

_When he swung it open, his gaze fell to Tyler, whose chest was heaving up and down like he had just ran over here. His eyes were wide with terror. Bucky had never seen him like this before, and he suddenly felt terrified about what the kid was going to tell him._

_“My,” Tyler paused and tried to catch his breath, “My dad. My dad is here. He’s fighting with my mom.”_

_As soon as he said this, Bucky heard you shouting from your driveway. He couldn’t make out what was being said, but he saw the way your ex was towering over you \- trying to intimidate you. Anger bubbled inside of his chest. He was going to end up doing something he’d regret later, but it’d be worth it._

_“You want us to come with you, Buck?” Steve asked as he helped Tyler through the door._

_Bucky shook his head. “No. You and Sam watch Ty. I’ve got to take care of this myself.”_

_He gave Tyler a comforting look before stomping down the driveway. As he got closer, he could finally hear what you two were yelling about._

_“I have a right to see my kid, Y/N!” Brock shouted, pointing towards the house. He obviously didn’t know Tyler already took off to Bucky’s house._

_You scoffed. “You haven’t tried seeing him or speaking to him since he was a toddler! He doesn’t even really know you! And in case you don’t remember, you signed away your rights when you decided to move in with your eighteen-year-old secretary and realized you didn’t want to pay child support!”_

_Brock shot his hand out and gripped onto your arm, eliciting a small whimper from you. His grip was so tight, you could feel his fingernails starting to break your skin._

_“Do not talk to me like that again, you bitch. I deserve to see my son, and I don’t care what I hav-”_

_His threat was cut off by Bucky slamming his fist into his jaw. You gasped. In the year that you had known Bucky, you had never seen him act violently towards anyone. It had caught you by surprise, but you didn’t mind. Brock deserved getting socked in the face. He was a dick._

_Bucky pulled Brock up by the collar of his shirt and pressed his back against his fancy SUV. You thought Brock was going to fight back, but he just stayed limp in Bucky’s grip. You should have felt bad for him, or at the very least pretended to, but you didn’t have the energy to muster up that much face emotion._

_“Don’t ever put your hands on her again, you got that?” Bucky growled. “She’s told me enough about you, and I will not hesitate to knock your teeth out if I even see you look in her direction right now.”_

_“But she-”_

_“Is a vital part of this town. As soon as everyone hears about what you did, you’re never going to be welcome here again. So, do yourself a favor and get lost, pal. And don’t come back. Tyler doesn’t want you in his life, he’s got a new family now, and you didn’t make the cut to be in it.”_

_Bucky shoved him backwards and stepped in front of you, making sure you were shielded if Brock tried anything stupid. He was probably trying to debate whether taking Bucky on would be worth it or not. Brock was just as fit as Bucky, but the look in Bucky’s eye warned him not to try it._

_You both watched in amusement as he scrambled into his SUV and took off down the road. Bucky turned to ask if you were okay, but he was cut off by your lips pressing against his._

_You quickly pulled away and slapped your hand over your mouth. “I’m so sorry! I shouldn’t have done that, but I-”_

_Bucky gently wrapped his fingers around the back of your neck and pulled your lips back onto his. You melted into the kiss almost instantly. He felt the little sigh you let out and knew you were okay with this. It had caught you both by surprise, but boy was it worth it._

That day changed your lives, literally, forever. You and Bucky started dating after that day, and Tyler had been in complete awe of him. He looked up to him. He constantly told other kid’s in his class that Bucky was secretly a superhero who saved his mom. 

Brock stayed away after that. You weren’t sure what sparked his sudden interest in wanting to get to know Tyler, but the pit in your stomach when you saw him told you that it couldn’t be for good reasons. You figured since it was around tax time, he was going to try and claim Tyler as a dependent to get more money. Tax fraud was something you wouldn’t be surprised about him doing. 

Bucky took a deep breath. He could already feel the lump in his throat starting to form. He didn’t want to get emotional, but the kid knew how to pull at a man’s heartstrings. 

“You have been in my life for six years now and married to mom for three of those. You have spent those years showing me how a real dad treats his son. You’re open and honest, even when I ask uncomfortable questions. Like that time I asked about the scars hidden under your tattoos. You never yell or hit me. You’re only grumpy in the morning when you haven’t had your cup of coffee. You also love me. You show it- you show it-” Bucky sniffled and covered his face with the letter. A few tears fell from his eyes as he let out a shaky breath. 

Reading this was a lot harder than he expected it to be. 

You smiled up at your husband and gave his shoulder a comforting rub. Tears were already prickling at the corners of your eyes, but you were trying to keep it together for him. 

“You show it in more ways than one. You show it when you leave cool drawings in my lunch box. You show it by reminding me to put on my seatbelt or tighten the straps on my helmet, if we’re riding the motorcycle. You always make sure to tell me you love me, too. You say that it’s important for us guys to be comfortable with showing emotion, so you always make sure I know that.”

Bucky reached over and pulled Tyler close to him. He placed a tender kiss on the top of his head before continuing with the letter. 

“I’m running out of time and my teacher is glaring at me, so I think she knows I’m not doing my vocabulary work. Do you remember the time I first called you "dad”? It had been an accident, but I’m not sure if I wanted to take it back.“

_It was just a few days after Tyler’s ninth birthday. You had been putting so much work into making sure it was perfect that you were still exhausted. Since it was your day off, Bucky offered to watch Tyler while you caught up on your sleep. You did not need to be told twice._

_Tyler had gotten home from school and was working on his homework in the living room. Books were spread out over the coffee table, and Bucky occasionally heard a grumbled complaint from him about how stupid math was. He thought about explaining the importance of math but decided to stay quiet in fear of distracting him._

_Tyler was too good at getting Bucky to rabbit trail and turn a five-minute story into a thirty minute one._

_"What’s the Py-thag-o-ree-in thee-o-rum?” He asked, looking up at Bucky in desperation._

_“It helps you find the slanty edge, also called a hypotenuse, of a right-angled triangle,” Bucky explained. “It’s A squared plus B squared equals C squared.”_

_“Oh. Okay! Thanks, dad.”_

_The word made both of them freeze in their spots. It had felt so natural to be called dad, but he never expected Tyler to actually say it. It wasn’t a bad thing at all - just very unexpected._

_“I’m sorry,” he mumbled. “I don’t know why I said that. That was stupid.”_

_Bucky shifted off of the couch and took a seat next to him on the floor. “Woah, hey, no. I don’t want you to be sorry for that. I know me and your mom aren’t married yet, but I consider you to be my son. You don’t have to call me dad if you don’t want to, but you can. I’m not going to get upset by that. You call me whatever you’re comfortable with.”_

_Tyler nodded slowly and returned to his homework. He didn’t press on the issue anymore after that. Bucky knew that when the time was right, he could talk about it again. All he needed was a little bit of reassurance._

“I knew that day you were my real dad. I spent a lot of time talking to mom about it, and we both agreed that it was time to make it official. Will you adopt me?” 

Bucky reread the last part more than once. His hands shook as he did, and he couldn’t stop the tears from flowing now. Tyler wanted to be adopted by him. He couldn’t believe it. 

You gently took the letter from his hands and placed it on the coffee table. You gestured him to open the box in his lap. No words felt good enough to say right now, so you stayed quiet, but your heart was bursting with joy. 

Bucky opened the box and saw the stack of papers that were waiting for him. It was all the paperwork that was required to go through with the adoption. Everything was already filled out, though. All it needed was Bucky’s signature. 

He pressed the heels of his palms against his eyes, a strangled sob escaping his lips. Tyler looked over at you, worried that Bucky didn’t want to do it, but you gave him a reassuring smile. 

_He’s crying because he’s happy_ , you mouthed to him. He nodded in understanding. 

“C'mere,” Bucky cried as he pulled Tyler into a bone-crushing hug. “Yes, yes I will adopt you. Are you kidding me? This is the best birthday present anyone could ever give me, kid.”

And it was. It really, really was.

**Author's Note:**

> Feedback is always welcomed and appreciated! :) x


End file.
